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From Ridicule to Resilience: My Journey with Physical Disability

• Brodda Mike • Season 2 • Episode 9

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Physical disabilities can be debilitating especially in a Country like Nigeria! 

Brother K shares the continuation of his life story as a physically challenged man, recounting his journey from childhood bullying to self-acceptance and personal growth despite living with polio.<br><br>• Enduring years of mockery and bullying from neighborhood children who would sing behind him and push him while walking to school<br>• Standing up to his tormentors by fighting back against a boy who pushed him, using his polio-affected leg in a way that shocked everyone<br>• Learning independence through his parents' tough approach, which required him to do all household chores despite his disability<br>• Searching desperately for healing at numerous religious crusades and prayer meetings<br>• Attending Reinhard Bonke's massive crusade in Lagos, walking miles with his wooden crutches only to leave disappointed<br>• Making the life-changing decision to accept himself and stop chasing miracles<br>• Discovering his talents and strengths while learning to cope with his situation<br>• Finding that hope is essential but must be directed toward realistic goals<br><br>Hope is the currency we spend for tomorrow, and any man that has hope has a future. The matter does not matter until it begins to matter.<br><br>


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Speaker 1:

Turn it up. I told you nah-ah, ah, please. No, you are worse than me. I know that you're a handy shaker, but they want to help me. Welcome to another episode of the Butterbox Podcast. And of course you know they call me Brother K.

Speaker 1:

Last week I started a series into my life as a physically challenged man, and so today it's the continuation of that story, and I'm going to try to recall where I stopped, and I think that is when I talked about how the kids in my area was singing behind me, mocking me as I was making my way to school every morning, which was a very challenging time for me. It was crazy, it was depressing, demoralizing, but it continued for years, for years, and one day I made up my mind that, out of all these kids that sing mocking me, I'm going to deal with one, and which and not this is what they do, for every time they sing mocking me, some of them will be shoving me at the back, some would even push me. I will fall over, stand up, pick up my bag, continue. Sometimes before I get to school, I'm looking all dirty because they've pushed me multiple times, I've fallen and when I get up, I look dirty, but I still have to go. So one day I was mad, I was furious, and so a boy showed me from behind and as I turned, before, as I was falling, I grabbed him, his shirt, pulled him with me on the floor and that right leg, that my right leg, which is the reason they mocked me for I twisted it around his neck, I held him down. He was was screaming. All the other kids were screaming. They were shocked. They never knew I could do that, but of course, because of the way my leg, or that right leg is, because of the polio, you know, there were some things I could do with the leg which every normal kid could not do, meaning that I could move it around anywhere and I wouldn't feel any pain. So I wrapped it around his neck and they were screaming. In fact, they had to run to go get his mom, and when his mom came, they saw us on the floor. They were shouting leave him. Leave him feel it. Feel it, of course, but I didn't.

Speaker 1:

I was determined to make sure that he feels every pain that I felt for all those years that they would mock me behind, singing, humiliating me. And when the mother noticed that I wasn't giving up and I wasn't going to let her son go. She pounced on me. She was hitting me a kid, a 10-year-old kid. She was hitting me left, right and center. And the moment I noticed that she was hitting me left, right and center, and the moment I noticed that she was hitting me because she felt that by hitting me I would let her son go, I made up my mind that you are going to have to kill me before I leave this boy and I held on tight to him.

Speaker 1:

Now, by the time they realized that I wasn't letting him go, I think somebody suggested that they should go get my mom. So they ran to my compound, called my mom. My mom asked what is going on. They were just pointing at the direction where the whole incident was happening and my mom ran there. My mom got there, saw what was going on. He shouted my name, kingsley, leave him, let him go now. At that point I raised raised my head and saw that it was my mom, and as much as I didn't want to let him go, but my mom had screamed my name, telling me to let him go. So I let him go and somehow letting him go.

Speaker 1:

All those kids that day were frightened. So that was how I got them to stop singing behind me and mocking me every morning when going to school. And so the next day, while I was going to school, I was expecting that they were going to do the same thing. But as I was walking to school, nobody came out. Nobody stand behind me, nobody was behind me mocking me and for the first time in my life, in a long while, there was this peace, there was this calm, so the life could be this free. And I got to school. And years passed, I got into secondary school. You know now, this is the thing.

Speaker 1:

While I was growing up, a whole lot was happening. My parents never treated me like a physically challenging boy, because they knew that life wasn't going to be easy on me. So they made me do everything every normal kid would do. I would wash the plates, do the dishes, sweep the house, wash clothes, go fetch water. Now you would imagine how the boy with the bad leg would do all these things. Trust me, I was doing every one of them. And while I was doing these things, I felt my parents were being wicked to me. I felt they were being heartless. I mean, who would see me in this condition and give me all these things to do, all these house chores to do. But they made me do it, in fact, because I have three younger sisters. They never allowed them to do anything Not that they don't allow them to do anything, but they allowed me to do most of the job, and I was the eldest. And so several years later I realized that what they did paid off, because today I do practically anything on my own without having to depend on anybody, and that was because of how my parents trained me. Now so.

Speaker 1:

But then, getting into secondary school, started going to church, started reading my bible, and I started hearing that god can heal me if I believe, if I have faith. You know I was attending deeper life by then. So every program that was held in deeperer Life that Pastor WF Comey was preaching, you would find me there. Any miracle center or any place there's a crusade, that miracle crusade. You will find me there. Because I was looking for miracles, because I was growing older. You know, I saw my friends have girlfriends, but I could not, because you know which girl is going to like me or love me the way I am. You know, that was just my thought.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, I was looking for miracles, trusting that I was going to get healed and I would walk normal and somehow I would go to all these crusades, all these miracle nights, and I'm seeing other people get healed while I'm not healed. A leg remains the same. In fact. You will hear somebody just shout Papa, somebody here was blind for several years and he can see. And they will shout Hallelujah, he can see. And they will shout hallelujah, he can see, he can see. Name it every crusade. I was everywhere at that time. I was there. If bishop waloki was having a crusade, I was there. If rehan bonki was having a crusade, I was there. Name all the crusades. I was going around looking for miracle because I needed my leg to be healed.

Speaker 1:

And so sometime in 1996 or 1997, I was listening to the radio and I heard an announcement that Evangelist Rehab Bonki was coming to Nigeria for his mega crusade. Now, rehab Bonki was a very, very notable evangelist that was preaching all over the world, holding big crusades and healing people, and he was usually you know, every year he would visit a particular African country, and that year in particular, he came to Lagos. And so I made up my mind and I said to myself this is it. Finally, I'm going to get my miracle. Because I've watched his miracle crusades on TV and see, and I saw the kind of healings that happened in his crusades. So I said to myself, if he can do this, and because of course he was a white man he's late now, though God bless his soul I said if he was a white man, since he's a white man, he would be able to heal me. And so that day we heard that he was going to be coming to the Olympic ground. Don't mind the coffee you're hearing at the background, that's my wife's coffee. Yeah, I'm married now. So, um, it continued and I heard it was coming to the olympic ground.

Speaker 1:

If you live in lagos, there's a place called sonia bus stop. Uh, before agor palace became developed as it is today, um, that area was linked to sonia bus stop. It was an empty large expanse of land. It used to be called the olympic ground and that was where rehat bonke held his crusade in 1996 or 1997. And so I was living in satellite town. Then I blew a shunt, to be precise, because then when we meet girls, if we want to tell them where we live, we say we live in satellite town so it doesn't sound too. No, satellite town sounds posh. You see that you say you live in satellite town or you say you live in fest town, but where we're living was just a place very close to satellite town. It was called a bl.

Speaker 1:

So I walked all the way from Aboloshun down to Sonia Bus Stop that evening to Rehat Bonki Crusade. The crowd was massive. You know, just imagine that kind of experience. You know the experience the gospel concert that holds every year in December Times. Three of that crowd was the crowd that came for the rehab donkey crusade that year, and so there was massive crowd and when I got there the whole place was jam-packed, open airfield. I could not even see where the podium or where the stage was. From where I was standing far back Just imagine, like I'm standing at Onikon and the stage is somewhere around the Atlantic and I still couldn't see the stage. But I could hear the sound of the pastor as the evangelist preaching and somehow I was forcing my way in between that crowd. I told myself if I could get to that crowd or in front of the stage I would get my miracle and somehow I got very close to the stage and evangelist Reha Bonki started preaching and started praying.

Speaker 1:

Finally, it was time for miracle and everybody was praying fervently. I also was praying fervently because why was I here? Why was I there? I came for my miracle. I was going to get my miracle. Nothing was going to stop me from getting my miracle. And just as he was praying, every other person around me was shouting that they have been healed, they can see the lane can walk, the dead is rising, people, disabled people could walk again. Everybody was getting healed, but except me. Why? Why am I not getting healed? What's going on? What's happening? This is the reason why I came. How come every other person is getting healed? What's going on? What's happening? This is the reason why I came. How come every other person is getting healed, but I wasn't getting healed and I waited, I prayed fervently and eventually the crusade ended for that night and it was time for everybody to leave the venue.

Speaker 1:

Now, as we're trying to make our way out of the venue, disappointed as I was, heartbroken as I was living without being able to receive my miracle, there was a heavy stampede, heavy stampede. People were pushing themselves and the ushers, the stewards, were trying to, you know, direct everybody to go towards a certain direction, but somehow the place was dark, the whole place was dark, and because the crowd was massive, a group of us fell into a big ditch. You know, when you fall into a very, very deep, deep ditch and we fell into it we're 100, almost 100 of us fell into that ditch, very big. Now it sounds like something from a movie scene, but trust me, that's exactly what happened. And at this time I was already walking with wooden crutches. You know, I'd grown out of. You know, holding my knee and bending over walking. I'd now learned how to start walking with crutches, but the crutches I was walking with at that time was wooden crutches, and so I fell into the ditch with the other people, and the whole place was dark. As we were inside the ditch, people were screaming.

Speaker 1:

Now, when I fell into the ditch, I passed out. I don't know for how many seconds or how many minutes I passed out, but by the time I regained consciousness, everywhere was dark, everywhere was dark, and I was like like what's going on in my head? I'm dead. Because I could hear screams, I could hear people shouting and because inside that ditch was dark. In my head I was saying to myself oh my god, I think I'm dead and I think this is hell. Because the screams were loud. You know that scream of fear because a lot of us didn't know what was happening at that time. So my head, so I died and I went to hell. And just as I was confused, disoriented, we had a voice Everybody stay calm. Everybody stay calm. We are going to pull you people, one after the other, just be calm. So at that point I said to myself okay, maybe I'm not just dead yet, because if I'm dead, I'm not sure anybody will be talking to us in hell the way they are talking to us. I'm not sure the demons talk this way. And we saw a bright light. Somebody shone a torchlight into that ditch and for the first time we were able to see a light. And they threw a rope and they started pulling us out, one after the other and eventually, when they pulled me out, I was still sad Because I was going back home, not being healed from my Situation or my disability.

Speaker 1:

And as I was going home that day Now I was trekking home I trekked to the venue. I was also trekking back home that night, and as I was trekking back home, I trekked to the venue. I was also trekking back home that night and as I was trekking back home, I said to myself this is it, I'm done. Never will I go out again in search of miracles or for healing. I told myself today I'm going to finally accept myself for who I am, the way I am, this situation or this condition, and I'm just going to make something good out of my life. And that was what I did. I stopped looking for miracles, I just accepted the situation and I started learning to adapt, or adapt to the situation, and I continued life basically.

Speaker 1:

And so, years down the line, I learned how to appreciate myself for who I am, with my disability, with my situation. I didn't want to bother myself for who I am, with my disability, with my situation. I didn't want to bother myself about it anymore. But then I also realized that I was blessed with a lot of talent. A lot of talent Like what I'm doing today is a talent that I was blessed with, and so I started working on my talent, knowing that one day, an opportunity will come and I would have to be prepared.

Speaker 1:

So what am I telling this story? I'm telling the story because I feel like a lot of people need to learn. A lot of people feel like their situation is the worst situation on earth. No, your situation is not the worst situation on earth. I just told you a part of my story and a whole lot more that I'm still going to tell you, just to let you know the struggles I've faced over the years.

Speaker 1:

But you have to come to a point where you do not allow your situations drown you. You find a coping mechanism to survive. You survive and move on, because life is not going to give you what you want. In most cases, life will never give you what you want. You have to take it by force. And in trying to take it by force, you have to take it by force. And in trying to take it by force, you're going to. You know you're going to have to believe in yourself, trust in yourself, trust the process, and that's what I did.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, this is where I come to an end on this episode of the butterbox podcast, and I do hope I've been able to use my story to motivate you, to encourage you and let you know that, no matter what you're going through, somebody else has it worse than you, you understand, but somehow they've been able to manage it, live with it and hope that tomorrow will get better. Like I always tell people that hope is the currency we spend for tomorrow, any man that has hope has a future. And, like I always say, the matter does not matter until it begins to matter. And, of course, you know this is the Battlebox podcast. You can always listen to us on all our streaming platforms. Also, follow us on all our various social media platforms as well. At Battlebox, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel. And until I come your way on the next episode of the BattleBot Podcast, I'm signing out. Bata, bata, bata, bata, bata Bots.